String piecing and crochet

First up a photo of my wonderful son Jack on Saturday ready to take a girl to her formal.  There's something special about seeing your child all dressed up in formal gear, definitely a photo op.

Not so smart was my decision to keep sewing and crocheting till 3am Saturday night waiting to see if I needed to pick him up from the after party.  I have a very bad habit of staying up too late stitching.  I find I get a lot more done at night time, I guess cause I don't get the guilts about not doing the housework at night!  It is a bad habit I really need to break, I get so engrosed in what I'm doing that I often don't feel tired.  How do you get to be middle aged and still not want to go to bed??  Can a night owl be reformed?  I think if I'm going to survive the next stage of my life I need to try.  I've been spurred on by the sight of a good friend out on a run this morning, I can barely drag myself out of bed and there was Kay running down beach road.  Last time I saw her she told me she had just taken up running, she's very inspiring.  Stay tuned.

As well as working on my hexagons on the weekend I made these squares.  They're a bit bigger than the grannies I made last year I like playing around with the colour combinations.  I'm trying not to get too distracted from my hexagons I think I'm about halfway there with them.

I also decided I wanted to do some more string piecing.   This was a pattern in the book Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again.  The block was called Liberated Wedding Ring its supposed to turn out at 14".  I'm using the leftovers from the fabrics I cut for my Jubilee quilt.  Of course I cut way too many strips so I should be able to make a  quilt just from the leftovers.  I'm going to do black and white prints in the corners, should be fun.  Its nice to have some piecing that you don't have to think too much about.  I haven't done much machine sewing lately.

I did get 2 of the inner borders on my jubilee quilt and I think they'll be staying.  It has taken me weeks to decide what I was doing with it.  Next up will be the applique border, thats when things will get really interesting.  If I don't get it right I might have to find a floral.hahaha

Happy stitching till next time,


Debra.

 

Miss Rosie Quilt finished.

 We've had really lovely weather this weekend, the sun was out and it wasn't raining, what a nice change.  I finally finished the binding on my Miss Rosie quilt.  The pattern was called Six Degrees and it was made using a lot of Blackbird Designs fabrics, very similar to the pattern in the book.  This afternoon was the perfect chance to get a photo outside with my 2 helpers, Jack holding the quilt for me and Harry giving the quilt a quick once over.  This is the only quilt I've had professionally quilted it was done by Cheryl at C.A Quilter, she did a great job.  I've always loved this design and it gives a great texture across the surface of the quilt and I really love these fabrics.  I'm very glad its finished and I can move on to another one of my wips.

I was trying for a close-up, this is the best I could do.  Harry kept trying to get under the quilt while Jack was holding it, it was very funny.  It certainly is difficult to get a quilt photo without Harrys help. See him in the photo below.  At least he's not in the middle of my rug this time.

I've been working steadily on my crochet hexagon rug, as you can see it is growing slowly.  I made the big mistake of starting the rug using a pale lemon wool for all the centres.  I thought I had plenty of it.  Last weekend I discovered I'd used 2 balls and couldn't find any more.  I went on search of some more on Monday and at the 4th wool shop I found it.  I bought 4 more balls, I'm sure I won't need that many but I don't mind leftovers and if i decide to make it queensize I'll probably have enough!

I think that's it for tonight.

Happy stitching,

Debra.

Old Stuff out, New stuff in....

 Hi there, I didn't mean to disappear from blogland but sometimes time just gets away from me.  I have been busy but didn't feel like I had a lot to show for my efforts.  Think I'm not alone with that.
I have a continual battle for work space in my sewing room.  I know I'm very lucky to have a space of my own but cause its smallish and I'm always trying to fit more in I find it very hard to keep on top of the mess.  I've had a clean out yet again and a rearrage and bought more storage containers (bury me in a plastic container) I've got so many. 

I was so disorganised for a few weeks that I couldn't do any stitching till I sorted myself out.  Just when I looked like I might have made some space I got sidetracked on a new hobby - more about that in a minute.  Since I didn't take photos of this whole process I've got a photo above of the quilt I made for Aleisha's 18th birthday nearly 2 years ago. I used a jelly roll and layer cake of Love is in the Air by Deb Strain and a pattern from a book of quilts from Jelly Rolls and Layer Cakes which I've leant to a friend at the moment so can't remember the name.  I love the bright colours, it was a fun easy quilt to make I even machine quilted it myself.  Aleisha brought it over for me to wash, she was worried about doing it herself.  I put 3 colour catches in the machine cause the fabrics weren't prewashed.  It came out looking really good colour catches did their job.  I even finished off the drying in the clothes dryer, think its the first time I've ever put a quilt in the dryer.  Looks good.

One of the things I've wanted for ages is a nice display cabinet to keep my quilts in.  I know they're out there but it wasn't something I could justify buying at the moment.  Anyway a couple of weeks ago Aleisha showed my a website called gumtree where people sell things or give them away.  Short story is I got myself a really nice big cabinet for $150 which suited my budget.  It wasn't far away and Aleishas partner James and I went and picked it up in his ute.  It was very heavy and it poured with rain as James and the man who owned the cabinet loaded it onto the ute but we did get it home and into the lounge and it looks great. 

It is so nice to have somewhere to keep the quilts that aren't being used and be able to admire them as well.   Plus its a win win cause my quilts aren't taking up space in my bedroom where most were stacked and I've got lots more storage space in cabinet.  There is a drawer that I haven't used yet and the cupboards at bottom where I've got some xmas things and wips.  Yay for the internet!!!

A few weeks ago I spent a very fun afternoon at Traceys house where she got me started on a mixed media project.  I was so excited about the possibilities especially as I can make a journal of all my quilts and ideas etc.  I had one that I started in 2010 but only did 4 pages now I can add all sorts of pictures and ideas that I wouldn't have thought about doing before.  That started me on a quest to get more quilt photos printed out which then led me onto going through all our family photos and sorting them out, then I decided to scrapbook some of the family photos cause we have so many.  As Jack said I really needed another hobby!!  I've been shopping for supplies of course and then buying more plastic storage containers......I could be doing worse things right?

Needless to say I now have to find space for a whole lot more stuff.  Don't think kitchen tables were ever meant to be used for eating were they?  I'm making an album for Aleisha for her birthday in August I hope she likes it.  I had always tried to avoid scrapbooking cause I have enough hobbies already but what the hell.  Wouldn't ever want to be bored with nothing to do.  Last Sunday Tracey took me to a huge scrapbooking shop in Mornington it was amazing I could have spent all day there!

I did buy some paper even though I had told myself I already had enough.  Didn't realise how fabulous it could be and of course some of it's designed by some of the quilt designers I like.  There were also stickers and tapes and pens that I had to have it was great.  Whats even more exciting is we're going back tomorrow morning cause Tracey left behind a couple of books she bought there last week.  I will try not to get too carried away.Promise.Hahahaha